Faculty of Science, University of Sydney, NSW 2006

About

The Centre for Human Aspects of Science and Technology (CHAST) was formally constituted in 1986 as a Centre within the Faculty of Science at the University of Sydney as an initiative of the Science Centenary celebrations. Its creation recognised the need to promote interdisciplinary integration of scientific knowledge and its impact on humans, our societies and the wider environment. Membership is open to those within and outside the University of Sydney.

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The CHAST 2009 Templeton Lecture

Professor Sean Carroll

The Origin of the Universe and the Arrow of Time

Monday 16th November 2009

6 pm – 6.50 pm with discussion 6.50 pm – 7.30 pm

Eastern Avenue Auditorium, The University of Sydney

Admission Free

seancarroll2

Abstract:
One of the most obvious facts about the universe is that the past is different from the future. The world around us is full of irreversible processes: we can turn an egg into an omelette, but can’t turn an omelette into an egg. Physicists have codified this difference into the Second Law of Thermodynamics: the entropy of a closed system always increases with time. But why? The ultimate explanation is to be found in cosmology: special conditions in the early universe are responsible for the arrow of time. I will talk about the nature of time, the origin of entropy and how what happened before the Big Bang might be responsible for the arrow of time we observe today.

Biography:
Sean Carroll is a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in 1993 from Harvard University and has previously worked at MIT, the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of Chicago. His research ranges over a number of topics in theoretical physics, focusing on cosmology, particle physics and general relativity. He is the author of From Eternity to Here, a popular book on cosmology and the arrow of time; Spacetime and Geometry, a textbook on general relativity; and has produced a set of introductory lectures for The Teaching Company entitled Dark Matter and Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the Universe. Carroll is a co-founder of the popular science blog Cosmic Variance (cosmicvariance.com). He was recently awarded the 2009 Viktor Hamburger Outstanding Educator award. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, writer Jennifer Ouellette.

Jointly sponsored by the University of Sydney’s Centre for the Human Aspects of Science and Technology (CHAST), The Centre for Time and the Sydney Centre for the Foundations of Science, and supported by the Australian Institute for High Energy Physics (AUSHEP).

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